DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0311
CESARE GONZAGA AT URBINO 271
by the Marchesa. In the summer of 1504, he writes
that he hears she has been reading Esop, and is so
much devoted to Latin literature as to despise all
poetry in the vulgar tongue, and ends by begging her
not to tire out all her teachers !
Again, at the close of 1510, when Cesare is on
duty in the papal camp at Modena, he snatches a
moment to beg Her Excellency to allow Marchetto
to set a madrigal of his composition to music, and
send him the melody of her favourite sonnet
“ Cantai.” “ If you will do me this kindness,” he
adds, “ I shall be grateful to you till the Day of
Judgment, and do not think it strange if in these
troublous times I make such a request, for, after all,
6 Marte ha solo la scorza, e il resto Amore’ (Mars
only has the bark of the tree, and Love holds the
rest).”1
Yet another member of this brilliant group,
whose name lives in Castiglione’s immortal pages,
and who, like him, sang the praises of the gentle
Duchess, was also intimately connected with Isabella
d’Este. This was the Venetian Pietro Bembo, who
came to Rome in the spring of 1505, on a mission
from the Doge and Signory, and was sumptuously
entertained by the Duke and Duchess, in their anxiety
to make some return for the hospitality which they
had received at Venice during their sad days of exile.
Isabella was already well acquainted with Pietro’s
father, the old Podesta of Verona, and with his brother
Carlo, whose palace she had visited in Venice, and who
had lent her some portraits of Petrarch, Dante, and
Boccaccio, which she wished to have copied at Mantua.
In January 1503, Isabella begged Pietro to accompany
1 D’Arco, Documenti, 81 ; Arch. St. It., App. ii.
by the Marchesa. In the summer of 1504, he writes
that he hears she has been reading Esop, and is so
much devoted to Latin literature as to despise all
poetry in the vulgar tongue, and ends by begging her
not to tire out all her teachers !
Again, at the close of 1510, when Cesare is on
duty in the papal camp at Modena, he snatches a
moment to beg Her Excellency to allow Marchetto
to set a madrigal of his composition to music, and
send him the melody of her favourite sonnet
“ Cantai.” “ If you will do me this kindness,” he
adds, “ I shall be grateful to you till the Day of
Judgment, and do not think it strange if in these
troublous times I make such a request, for, after all,
6 Marte ha solo la scorza, e il resto Amore’ (Mars
only has the bark of the tree, and Love holds the
rest).”1
Yet another member of this brilliant group,
whose name lives in Castiglione’s immortal pages,
and who, like him, sang the praises of the gentle
Duchess, was also intimately connected with Isabella
d’Este. This was the Venetian Pietro Bembo, who
came to Rome in the spring of 1505, on a mission
from the Doge and Signory, and was sumptuously
entertained by the Duke and Duchess, in their anxiety
to make some return for the hospitality which they
had received at Venice during their sad days of exile.
Isabella was already well acquainted with Pietro’s
father, the old Podesta of Verona, and with his brother
Carlo, whose palace she had visited in Venice, and who
had lent her some portraits of Petrarch, Dante, and
Boccaccio, which she wished to have copied at Mantua.
In January 1503, Isabella begged Pietro to accompany
1 D’Arco, Documenti, 81 ; Arch. St. It., App. ii.